1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a steering handle apparatus for use in a bicycle, and more particularly to a steering handle apparatus of the above type including, in the vicinity of its grip portion, a change-speed lever apparatus for effecting a change-speed operation with a forward operation on a control lever or with a return operation on the same to its home position.
2. Description of the Related Arts
A bicycle steering handle apparatus of the above-described type is known from e.g. a Japanese laid-open patent No. 61-143275. In this apparatus, the control lever pivotable about a vertical shaft and attached to one lateral side of the steering handle bar extends, at its home position, on the side of the handle bar contacting the interdigital areas of the rider's hand gripping a grip portion of the handle, i.e. on the upside of the grip portion.
In general, the handle gripping condition during a bicycle run depends largely on the four fingers other than the thumb of the rider's hand. Accordingly, when the rider operates the control lever while gripping the steering handle, it is desirable that he may use his thumb which is less important for the handle gripping.
However, with the above-described conventional construction, if the rider is to use his thumb to operate the control lever while gripping the handle, his thumb must be lifted up by a significant degree. Then, such considerable lifting-up motion of the thumb destroys the handle-gripping palm loop formed by the thumb and the other four fingers and the gripping condition becomes insufficient, such that the rider's hand tends to slip off the handle thereby to endanger the rider.
Moreover, such lift-up motion of the thumb per se is not desirable in the view point of human engineering and therefore makes the change-speed operation rather clumsy and difficult.
Thus, the primary object of the present invention is to provide an improved bicycle steering handle apparatus which can assure the rider of greater safety by always providing the rider with a good gripping condition and of easier control lever operation.